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To address the continued spread of HIV in the general population, PEHTI is a statewide CDC-funded collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Health for the purpose of facilitating implementation of 2006 CDC guidelines for routine integration of opt-out HIV screening into a broad range of general clinical care settings serving communities highly impacted by HIV, particularly African Americans, Latinos, injection drug users (IDU), and men who have sex with men (MSM). To ensure engagement along the entire continuum of HIV prevention/care, Critical Phase Interventions (CPI) protocols (illustrated in the graphic) facilitate efforts which go beyond routine opt-out HIV screening, to include referral, tracking/ascertainment and assurance of linkage to, and retention in prevention/care for persons diagnosed with HIV. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is separately funded to conduct expanded HIV testing in Philadelphia County.

More specifically, PEHTI-CPI projects are currently implementing ‘PDCA-cycle’ quality improvement demonstration projects and learning collaboratives to assist a broad range of healthcare providers with start-up, CPI protocol-specific technical support, in-service training, and monitoring and evaluation, in support of the entire continuum of engagement along the above-referenced 2 focus areas of CPI protocols:
a) Testing, referral and tracking (TRT) protocols in collaboration with Community health clinics, emergency departments, correctional facilities, outpatient settings, and residency programs:- to provide start-up assistance, guidance on EHPS protocols for opt-out HIV screening, EHPS protocol-specific technical support and in-service training, HIV testing resources for screening of uninsured persons, and monitoring and evaluation in support of healthcare providers on routinization of integration of opt-out screening for HIV in conjunction with other health screenings. If your clinic is not yet participating, click here to review information on getting started incl. links to the CPIonline site registration form @ the Main Collaboration Center.
b) Linkage to, and retention in prevention/care (LRP/C) protocols in collaboration with HIV treatment clinics (including their intake/continuing care case management support services):- to address a critical additional dimension to the above-referenced HIV screening efforts, which includes referral, tracking/ascertainment and assurance of linkage to, and retention in care for persons diagnosed with HIV. If your clinic is not yet participating, click here to review information on getting started incl. links to the CPIonline site registration form @ the Main Collaboration Center.

The above activities include promoting collaboration of the PEHTI-CPI partner clinics with district/local health department field staff on timely reporting of new HIV diagnoses/enrollments, and ascertainment of linkage to prevention/care which is integrated with their respective roles on HIV reporting.

Early detection, tracking of referrals, and linkage to and retention in prevention/care is critical to HIV management and reducing/stopping the spread of the virus. Timely HIV testing saves lives.